I remember my first con. It was Dragon*con in Atlanta, 2008. I remember walking down the street, looking around at all of the other happy people who were dressed in various cosplay, and I felt this sense of peace I had never experienced before. It felt like I was really home. Here I am, surrounded by people who are so much more like me than the people I know, people who love what I love and experience what I experience. I felt like I was finally in a place where I wouldn’t be judged.
That’s not always the case.
About a month before I began constructing my very first Ivy costume. It was simple and not at all accurate. I sorted through a variety of shirts and dresses and finally settled on an off the shoulder green dress with some simple high heels. I was so excited! When I arrived, I had a friend paint ivy leaves on my arms and legs, and at the last minute I made a sign saying “Poison Kisses, $1!”
Day 1 was AWESOME! The vendors were super sweet about my attempt at cosplay, and they all knew exactly who I was trying to be! I felt like I was on top of the world! Then the other Ivy’s showed up.
You would think that a love for a character, especially one that so many others harbor a sense of disdain for, would be enough of an icebreaker. I spotted a group of about 8 Ivy’s sitting together having lunch, and I could barely contain my excitement! These were my people! As I approached, it was like they were a part of some weird telepathic collective. All of their heads swiveled in my direction, matching looks of haughty derision on their faces, and I turned right around on my heel and tried my best to be invisible.
It’s contagious, that feeling of superiority. It’s easy for me, as someone who has been tinkering for 5 years on what will hopefully be a creative revamp of Ivy, to look at someone plastered in prefab leaves and wonder how they could dare contaminate my retinas with their inferiority. But how is that different from high school? How is it different from every other form of persecution I’ve suffered? I’ve been called a freak, a weakling, androgynous, a weirdo, I’ve had people tell me that I’m so flat chested they mistake me for a gay man. How can I look at someone who is so excited to be accepted, who worked to express themselves and their love for a character through cosplay, and think that they are anything less than amazing?
And then there’s this: http://www.epbot.com/2013/05/is-this-what-respect-feels-like-real.html#comment-form
We as a geek community need to come together and support and protect each other. This year at Dragon*con I’m making it my mission to seek out every single Poison Ivy cosplayer and tell her (and potentially him) that she is freaking AMAZING! It’s up to us to make sure that horrible incidences like what happened above don’t happen in our community. We’re geeks. We’re smart. We’re better than that.
Love,
Ivy
Ivy's Trellis 